Love In The Afternoon

How long is the ceremony for? What's the travel time between ceremony and reception. Let's say your ceremony is an hour long, with 30 min travel time. Your guests will arrive at the reception at 3:30, so if you start cocktails then, you'll need to have a substantial amount of food for them. Usually the cocktail hour is only around an hour, but can stretch to 1 1/2 hours as long as there are food and drinks.

I guess my question is what are you doing for your guests during that gap?

Glad you were happy with the food!!

Three appetizers and a dinner sounds very typical to me.

That sounds like a typical meal to me.

I agree, this sounds like a very typical amount of food served at a wedding

View Quoted Comment Thank you!🌸

View Quoted Comment We actually ended up changing our venue so we have a wonderful new venue and exceptional caterers to work with… I think we’ll be happy.💕

View Quoted Comment Awesome thanks!🌸

We have 5 appetizers, salad and entrees planned for our wedding in June. We also have the cake, dessert table and a candy bar. I believe that we have to much food but I think that yours sounds right on par with so many other weddings.

View Quoted Comment Thank you Marie,


Congratulations to you both! Your menu sounds delightful. My fiancé and I are both foodies so we changed our venue based on our personal tastes and needs. We are very happy with the selection for our wedding next Spring and with the more guest friendly menu that we are planning. I feel like too much food is far better than not enough food and leftovers can be shared with friends and family who wish to take food home after the reception or donated to local shelters.
Denise

If you haven’t already, take a poll of your most important guests who are attending (parents, siblings , best friends) for feedback because only they can answer the too much vs just right vs not enough based on what is customary in your social circle. Some families expect a massive cocktail hour with 3-5+ action stations plus passed and stationary appetizers, and even though guests are stuffed, they still expect a full plated meal that doesn’t get touched. Others have a standard meal of 1-3 options with sides. Other families don’t serve a full meal at all and just do cake and coffee, and would think you are wasting money on a full meal because it’s not part of their traditions.


For the average family/guest who doesn’t fall into the demographic of massive cocktail hour or cake only, what you are planning is standard and plenty. Just make sure to include options for dietary restrictions so that vegans/vegetarians are not limited to salad and rolls only and that no one has to go to the hospital from allergic reactions to ingredients. Because the common dinner hour (the average eat between 5-6:30) falls between your timeframe, you are golden.
As far as leftovers, some caterers don’t allow you to take them home at all due to health department restrictions and others will let you donate to local homeless shelters. But you can arrange with your day of coordinator for that to be take care of.